Category Archives: Green

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Summer is in full swing, and the longer days and warm temps make now the perfect time to throw an outdoor soiree, whether a small patio gathering or an all-out block party. As you can probably guess, though, these kinds of events often produce a lot of waste — each year Americans toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times, says the Clean Air Council.

The most commonly irrigated crop—the plant that receives 4 billion gallons of potable water a day, the plant that the average American spends 150 hours a year tending, and the plant that North America alone spends $40,000,000,000 a year on—is not the crop that will feed the world. In fact, it is not a crop that will feed anybody, except maybe some lucky cows.

Honey bees are super pollinators and have an enormous impact on the environment. Since the mid 2000’s their numbers have been declining rapidly. Scientist are unable to explain their disappearance but one thing is for certain, the absence of bees would leave much of the world’s food supply in question. Without pollinating insect life, fruits, vegetables, and field crops would be obsolete causing extreme hardship for the farm and food industry and leaving their future, and our survival, in question.

While the United States typically prides itself on being a country where free speech reigns and journalists are able to chase down stories without government interference, Amy Goodman doesn’t see it that way.

“In the old Soviet Union, people knew that they had to read between the lines of state-sponsored news to get to the truth,” Goodman said at an event in Philadelphia. “But in this country there is the illusion that…”

Huge amounts of “free,” renewable energy are found in, on, and above the oceans of this world. Inevitably, that energy will be tapped as fossil fuels become scarcer and their use is seen to be incompatible with a sustainable environment for humans and other species of life. Even now, offshore wind farms are…

The Kemper Tiny House is continuing to build character, as some of the final touches to its interior are almost complete.

Brad Kittel, the owner of Tiny Texas Houses, found and salvaged some beautiful Long Leaf Pine from a Methodist Church in East Austin dating back to the 1890s. The wood was previously used as a church pew, and was originally 16 feet long without a single knot in the entire plank.

Our Tiny House will have a very unique bed, a “Captain’s bed”, which has five drawers to increase storage for linens, bedding, and clothes. Like the rest of the house, the bed is made of 100+ year-old wood, and…

It’s simply wonderful, and a total joy to watch our tiny house as it approaches completion.

The wood being used to build the cabinetry, window trim, the ship ladder to the loft space, countertops, shelves and all other interior and exterior details is longleaf pine, reclaimed from a tear-down, slated for demolition due to highway expansion through Luling, Texas. Estimated age of the wood is approximately 100 years.